Mr. Butler's Discourse. 



167 



support of animal life, and is the principal basis of national 

 wealth, its improvement has ever been considered, by reflect- 

 ing minds, an object of primary importance. Having no 

 practical knowledge of the art, I shall not enter into details ; 

 but I will venture to say, that there is, in many parts of the 

 state, great room for improvement, if not in the mode of culti- 

 vation, at least in the quality of the articles produced. On 

 this latter point, those who have no knowledge of husbandry, 

 may yet be permitted to express an opinion. To illustrate 

 what is intended by these remarks, and at the same time to 

 avoid prolixity, a single article is selected — it shall be an 

 humble one — the potatoe. 



The value of this vegetable, as an article of food, not only 

 for man, but for various domestic animals, is well understood. 

 It must also be well known, that there are many varieties, 

 differing greatly in flavor, in nutrition, and in healthfulness. 

 Indeed there is no article of food in which diversities of this 

 sort exist to so great a degree ; as will readily be admit- 

 ted, by those who have compared the kidney or pink-eye^ (va- 

 rieties recently introduced) with the strong, clammy, and in- 

 digestible roots, formerly grown in such abundance in this vi- 

 cinity. I do not know how it mav be in other parts of the 

 state, but I am persuaded that in this city, four-fifths of the 

 potatoes brought to market are of the old varieties. Here 

 then is a subject for improvement — one too of great impor- 

 tance. Probably three -fourths of our population use the po- 

 tatoe as a part of their daily food : and surely the supplying of 

 so many persons with the article, in a form the most healthful, 

 palatable and nutritious, cannot be a small question. 



This however is but a narrow view of the subject. We 

 are not to limit our reflections to our present population. We 

 are to look forward to the time, when even the sterile and 

 mountainous regions which are now rarely trodden by the 

 foot of man, will have their thousands of human beings, whose 

 sustenance is to spring almost exclusively from the soil. On 

 what are they to be subsisted ? Doubtless a great proportion 

 of them on the potatoe ; for among the valuable qualities of 

 this vegetable, may be enumerated the facts, that it may be 

 grown where wheat and other bread corns will not succeed ; 

 that it may be cultivated with success in almost every variety 



